ANDREWS Gary Wayne Winner has the formidable task of taking over as Andrews High School band director following last November’s tragic wreck that killed three, including previous band director Darin Johns and longtime retired teacher Marc Boswell.
It also injured 37, according to the National Transportation Safety Board report.
Winner had been the head middle school band director at Andrews previously and is in his 16th year of teaching, all in band.
“I’m extremely nervous,” he said. “Mr. Johns was a very talented music educator, well known throughout the state, and because of how well known he was and how great of an educator he was, it’s going to be hard to fill his shoes,” Winner said.
It does help that Winner was already in the district, familiar with the students and all they’ve been through. Plus he has support from his colleagues.
“The staff has been absolutely amazing to work with. TeAda Hair, Joseph Firenza, David Conger, Aaron Meyers, they’ve been great to work with. The kids love all of them. I think it’s going to be an exceptional year because we have a good staff and we have good kids and we have so much support from the community and the admin here, so it will be a fun year,” Winner said.
The band also is eligible for state competition this year.
Winner grew up in Grapevine and earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La. While he was teaching, he earned a master’s degree there in music education. His primary instrument is the trombone.
“I’ve taught two years in Lake Charles, La., at a school called LaGrange High School. I was assistant band director there for two years and then went to Abbeville, La., and was the head band director at Abbeville High School for four years,” Winner said.
“My first wife passed away from cancer while I was in Abbeville and so that brought me to Texas where I got a master’s degree in chaplaincy at Abilene Christian. From there, I taught for a year in Columbus ISD down near Houston and I taught another year in Mesquite ISD and then wound up in Abilene ISD at Craig Middle School for four years,” he said.
Winner has since remarried to his wife LeAnna. They have three boys, ages 9, 7 and 5, and have been married for 10 years.
“… I’ve always wanted to go back to the high school. Mr. Johns and I were talking because he was about to retire; he had probably another year or two left until retirement. We had … discussions before the accident about me being trained to take over his place. That time came a little sooner than what he and I both anticipated,” Winner said.
Projected enrollment for the band this year is 144 compared to 126 last year.
“That was something that shocked us, too, after such an experience as we had last November. We thought we would probably have some decrease. Instead, we’ve actually increased our numbers,” Winner said.
“We have a huge freshman class. … That’s my eighth-grade class which was with me since they were sixth graders, so I think that’s probably a lot of it, just that transition — them coming up with me,” he added.
In speaking of his first wife passing away, Winner said he has a “huge, firm faith in God.
“I know that God puts you where he wants you. … I find it interesting that as I’ve gone through my career from one place to another, I wound up in a place like Andrews where we have this horrific accident and then all of a sudden I feel like my chaplaincy work is put into play, having to help these students through this terrible accident. So I’m a firm believer that God put me where he put me to be able to help these students, and not just the students, but the other staff members, too,” Winner said.
Being able to listen to the other staff members and what they were going through has been helpful, he feels.
Winner decided to become a band director when he was in seventh grade.
“My band directors were all smiling and having fun and laughing. I thought any career (where) you can do that, that’s the career I want, so I knew I wanted to be a band director and went after it,” he said.
In general, he said, band directing is transitioning to becoming kinder and gentler.
“The newer, younger directors are coming out of college with a lot of social-emotional learning techniques to deal with students who are going through events in their life. Teachers in general and music educators as well are becoming more like counselors in a way. We’re dealing with a lot of social-emotional issues with students where we’re having to walk beside them through those things,” he added.
Andrews’ band camp was July 11-15. They took a week off so the students could participate in two-a-days for athletics. He noted that Andrews students are involved in everything.
“… We’re coming back this week to practice in the evenings to make sure kids don’t have to choose between athletics and band,” Winner said.
The band’s show this year is titled “Giver of Life.” It’s in three movements and comes from an idea of Johns’s.
“It opens up with barren, cracked land and trees that have nothing on them. That’s the first movement,” Winner said.
The songs are “Come Down to the River” by Alison Krauss and the hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” performed in a downbeat way.
“That leads into our second movement (for) which we’re using Garth Brooks’ ‘The River,’” he said. “So then the rain and storms come and the river opens up and starts to flood the land. The third movement is a group of two songs together, one by Thomas Bergerson and that song … is called ‘Celebration’ and then the second song is ‘Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,’ but in a very happy way,’ Winner said.
“During that third movement is when everything on the field turns green and there’re flowers and the land’s been brought back to life. So our show has two parts to it. There’s the spiritual part of it. … The idea of water in many different religions is important like in the Christian faith, the idea of baptism by water … your old self becoming new. Native American Indians had to live near water and they worshipped the water because water was their lifeline. So in general, (water) has a lot of spiritual meanings. We chose ‘Come Thou Fount’ and the Alison Krauss song because of the spiritual idea of coming down to the river and blessings coming through the fount of God,” he added.
Winner said water is the giver of life also because it gives life to plants, which in turn gives life to animals, which in turn helps humans live.
“So there’s a spiritual and biological meaning to the show. I will say the idea was from Darin. His thought was about water and rain in general. We basically took his initial thought and the entire show is a culmination of what we came up with together as a group; just his one little drop of thought. The kids and I, as we played the music at our band camp, have already experienced emotional moments, especially in the third movement where ‘Celebration’ is being played and there’s ‘Come Thou Fount.’ The kids and I stopped and talked about how cool it is that Darin’s in heaven celebrating and then we’re down here asking God to give us blessings. It seemed like a really surreal thing in the show. While we were playing, the kids were buying into the show. I think they like the show a lot. It’s another state year for us, so it’s a chance to advance to state. That’s our goal,” Winner said.
Clayton Harris of Marching 365, and formerly of UTPB, is the visual designer for the show. The composer for the music is Luke McMillan.
“We gave them some ideas and they developed the show,” Winner said.
He said he has loved being in Andrews.
“The school district and community are extremely supportive and these are some of the best students I’ve ever taught. I’ve taught in, like I said, many other locations and these students are amazing students. They’re resilient, they work hard, they persevere. I just can’t talk highly enough about the students. Our band parent booster organization is very helpful,” Winner said.
One of the things they are going to start pushing more this year is letting students know that scholarships are available through colleges.
“We found out that a lot of our students weren’t aware that there are college scholarships for band, and so we’re starting to have these conversations with our kids now about hey, we know college isn’t for everybody, but for those of you that do want to go there’s a way to make extra money that’s free. You don’t have to worry about paying it back to Uncle Sam and you’re not in debt,” Winner said.
He added that college band has less pressure than high school because of the competitiveness in high school and everyone’s goal to make state.
Winner said the students were laser focused at band camp because they want to reach that state objective.
TeAda Hair, the head middle school band director, said Winner will do a great job.
“The kids love and respect him and it’s been a smooth transition for the kids. He has everybody’s best interests at heart; what’s best for the kids; what’s best for us; what’s best for the program. Wayne is all about that, so he’s a huge asset to us and the program. He’s going to do a great job. Darin respected Wayne, so it is what Darin would have wanted,” Hair said.
